Software

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has come a long way from the days of IE6 and may even represent one of the best touch screen web browsers around. Other third party companies don’t want to be left out of the future though, and Firefox has been the strongest advocate as its beta version of Firefox for Windows 8 continues to be developed. Recently, a blog post by Mozilla’s Brian Bondy, revealed that one annoyance of using Internet Explorer on the desktop and modern interface, will be remedied.

For users who have their head buried in Steam and love their current Windows 8 rig, it might be safe to take the leap and upgrade to Windows 8.1. Two video drivers, one from NVIDIA and the other from ATI, are now available for download.

We are approaching the 10th birthday of Microsoft’s information gathering application, OneNote. The first edition of OneNote to be released was OneNote 2003 in November of the same year. If you are like me, you may not have been introduced to Microsoft’s info application until only a few years ago when the company decided to include it in all versions of Office 2010.

In this busy, busy week in tech, Apple dropped the latest update to OS X, 10.9 Mavericks, and with it some apps have started to experience problems. One of those, at least on my Mac, is Nokia Photo Transfer. It seems to be pretty widespread, with problems detailed in the Nokia support forums, as well as in the Windows Phone Central forums. The good news; there is an easy fix.

Road warriors, those that get lost easy or for those of you who just need an A-Class GPS navigation system for Windows Phone 8: you have a new option on the table with Scout GPS Maps by Telenav. The app and service is launching today and we have all the info on it.

First launched on select devices for T-Mobile, like the new Lumia 925, the service is now open to all Windows Phone 8 devices (currently US only). We’ve been using the app for a few weeks now and have come away impressed with the full-featured navigation system and it is now our go-to choice when taking a trip.

The app comes in two varieties: free and subscription based, with the latter offering the full experience with premium features while the former is still a great valued navigation system.So what does Scout GPS Maps offer? Besides its intuitive and finger-friendly UI, the system includes all the bells and whistles you would expect in a navigation app. In fact, we were impressed with how much is included with an initial release.

We are getting reports from the Windows Phone Central faithful around the world that their Nokia Lumia 920s are starting to receive the eagerly-awaited Amber and GDR2 updates from Nokia and Microsoft. So far, we have heard from readers in Denmark and India who have received the Amber firmware update on their Lumia 920s. There is also word that Microsoft's GDR2 update has made its way to Sweden and Spain. Lumia 920s in Australia began seeing GDR2 earlier today, and we expect that others are en route as well.

While an official Vine app was announced last week for Windows Phone, from our understanding that app is still in gestation and we don’t expect it for weeks if not months to hit the Store. Even then, we have a sneaky suspicion that Huyn’s version will still be better, due to his flair for design and perfection.

Luckily for Windows Phone 8 fans, you can now join in on the Vine-phenomenon by downloading 6Sec right from the Store today.

Just around six months ago we reported on how the popular streaming app iHeartRadio was pulled from the Windows Phone Store, with an error in it being "posted early”. The issue surrounding the app involve it basically not working any longer, and it was generating quite a negative buzz in user reviews.

Well, here we are on July 1st and behold, iHeartRadio is back on Windows Phone 8 with a 1.0 release. And no, this isn’t the same version we say in January as it has a fresh new coat of paint (aka redesigned) and features some nifty Windows Phone 8 tools, such as Lockscreen support.

Earlier today, we reported on a Windows Phone Store weakness allowing savvy users to download Nokia-exclusive applications onto non-Nokia hardware (well, try to at least, as often those apps are API dependent). But we did a little more digging and discovered the weakness doesn't just cover Nokia apps. You can manipulate the Store into providing any device or operator-exclusive app for your device.

We’ve seen Wi-Fi calling in the past from carriers and it usually involves having a separate router-like device that you need to “rent” from your operator. The problem with that system, besides the extra cost, is it’s not mobile so it only works at home (as opposed to a friend’s house or your local Starbucks).

So how is it? It’s actually one of the coolest things we’ve used that has improved mobile connectivity. Sure, it making calls this way still counts towards your minutes, but it goes a long way in improving reception in certain cellular dead-zones.

Today, Microsoft announced plans to add enhancements and new features to their online Office Web Apps. The service is a direct competitor to Google’s Docs and Microsoft aims to overpower the service with tight SkyDrive integration and a larger feature set inherited from their full desktop Office suite.

New features include real-time co-authoring of documents and the ability for users to run Office Web apps on Android tablets via mobile Chrome web browser support. The new lineup of features aren’t scheduled to be released until a year from now.

Hotel giant Holiday Inn, owned by UK-based InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), has released a travel app for Windows 8. The app is incredibly simple, but effective. It lets you book rooms and check on reservations anywhere in the world with a straight-forward interface and controls. It also lets users sign in to their Priority Club Rewards account, or sign up if they do not have one.

Let’s be clear about something: Windows Phone 7 was simply a warm up act for Windows Phone 8. It was the start of something big and different for Microsoft, a way for them to take a distinctive approach to the current smartphone exemplar. But Microsoft were hindered by numerous roadblocks: an aging kernel (the core of the OS), limited hardware and a desire to be more conservative in features waiting instead for user-feedback and to see how people actually use their phones.

With Windows Phone 8, the gloves are off.

There are two areas in which Windows Phone 8 differs from its predecessor: the core of the OS has been updated with the NT kernel and the addition and refinement of features. Consumers don’t need to know about the kernel specifics but they will see the results: new, top of the line hardware. That hardware will be evident in a few weeks when devices like the HTC 8X and Nokia Lumia 920 become available.

Windows Live Essentials has been part of most Windows Users standard installation for many years now. This familiar and ‘essentials’ set of applications does much to make Windows come to life as a useful productivity tool. Providing photo editing, movie making, blogging, email, synchronising and instant messaging apps, ‘Essentials’ forms a solid backbone for basic computing throughput when using Microsoft operating systems.

Whereas a certain other well-known fruit themed OSX has the luxury of these types of applications being built in, Microsoft decided after Vista to detangle these common apps from their OS. In part to make future updates easier to deliver and in part due to avoid any undue and potentially messy encounters with anti-trust bodies. So what’s the skinny on Essentials 2012?

Good Technology has released their annual report detailing the spread of device activations for Q2. Good are well known for being at the forefront of providing technology for IT departments to facilitate users who wish to use their own devices for work, commonly referred to as BYOD, or to allow departments to use technology that's not quite as secure or manageable out of the box. The premise is simple; the software provides a heavily encrypted shell to keep corporate email private and secure. Windows Phone is making its presence known in the workplace according to this report.

The Good Windows Phone client was only debuted in April 2012 but already it’s showing as accounting for 1.2% of the overall activations. Bear in mind that the lion’s share of activations are currently going to the non-enterprise friendly, but current executive fondle-thing-business toy, the IPad. The iPad is accounting for a whopping 94.5 of all activations.

With today's busy world, sometimes finding time to read you favorite article or keep up with the news can be difficult. Luckily, there may be a solution for some of you on the horizon.

SoundGecko is a new, amazing service where you find any article, email it to them, and they will send you back an MP3 file of that article. The service can connect up with your SkyDrive or DropBox service to automatically deposit audio files of new articles, allowing to you to pull them down on-the-go. The smartphone app is simply a method to flag articles for the service for conversion.

Currently, the app is only available on the iPhone and Chrome browser (via an extension) but fear not, a Windows Phone version is in the works and we'll have some information on that coming soon...

Microsoft is rolling out another update to its SkyDrive Windows Phone client today. Not a huge amount has changed in the latest version but it does bring some welcome graphical changes.

The logo has been updated to now fall in line with that seen on the web and on the desktop version of the client, gone is the swish and onwards with the ‘flattening’. It is also adhering more to the Metro feel, dropping the rather dull skeuomorphic yellow folder icons and replacing them with their authentically digital counterparts. Yes, that means blue squares to you and me.

We're now hearing from the team that an update is propagating through the Marketplace, enabling 30-way group messaging across iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone devices! (If your friends are still rocking Nokia s40/s60 devices, they have to wait a little longer.)

eBuddy XMS is a free app that you can find here at the Windows Phone Marketplace. We haven't gotten our hands on the update yet, but if you have, share your thoughts in the comments or on our forums.